Shawn loves the outdoors so we decided to go camping in the sequoias for our summer break. It was absolutely beautiful there. I was a little hesitant about going because I'm not a fan of bears! Haha.. well while we were there I wrote a journal for my little brother Eddie so he could feel like a part of the trip. So I decided to share the journal with everyone.
Day 1 Last night I had to work at 10pm until 6:30 this morning. Usually after work I go home and go straight to sleep, but at work all I could think about was all the things I still needed to get (batteries, bug spray, ice & advil) and all the things we still needed to pack. So after work I went over to Walmart and waited until 7am when they opened. I got everything we needed and headed to the gas station to fill the car up. Once I got home I stayed up and finished packing everything up. We took off around 9am and about 20 minutes into the drive I finally went to sleep. At about 12:30 Shawn woke me up to get some lunch in Lemoore. He stopped at Popeyes and I don’t know if the food was really that gross or if I was just really tired. I’m thinking it was a combination of both. For the next 45 minutes I kept falling asleep and waking back up so I just gave up on sleeping. We were almost there anyways. The roads up the mountains were really narrow and there was some construction going on. It was really creepy and I’m glad I wasn’t the one driving. As soon as we got to our campsite we started setting everything up. We had to take all of our food and other supplies out of the car because there are black bears in the Sequoias so everything had to be kept in bear lockers. Once everything was set up we went out to do a little exploring. We drove down to some other campsites and hiked up what I think was a granite rock. It was pretty big but not too huge.
On our way back to the car we saw a deer just hanging out.
We did some more exploring, but nothing too exciting. We came back to out campsite and made foil dinners. Shawn has started this super healthy eating thing. I like to call him a hippy, but he doesn’t like that. So almost everything we brought up with us was “organic”. Hopefully we’ll see some changes soon. The weather was pretty warm so we figured the nights wouldn’t be very cold, boy were we wrong! It was freezing.
Day 2 I did not want to get up. It didn’t help that Shawn woke me up at about 8am and I was still tired from the day before. We had cereal for breakfast and packed our lunch. We had cooked up some chicken strips before we left the house so we had chicken and mozzarella sandwiches on Ciabatta (fancy Italian bread). We also had some granola bars, pretzels for me and organic pita chips for Shawn. We started heading out on a little drive. It quickly became a long drive! First stop was a place called the Lost Grove. It was covered in Giant Sequoias.
After we walked around a little bit we drove to our next destination called Grant Grove. Here we walked on a small trail and saw some more giant sequoias. They also had one that had fallen over that they hollowed out so that people could walk through it.
That’s Shawn J. After our little hike it was still pretty early so we continued on with our long drive! It was so crazy and scary. I’m still afraid of heights and for part of the drive we were right a long the edge. Thank goodness Shawn was driving. The drive took about an hour, but it was so worth it. We ended up at Grizzly Falls.
It was so beautiful. It was like a giant mister. As you walked up to it, it would spray you lightly with water. We ate our lunch here and then headed back to our campsite. Shawn let me take about a 30 minute nap and then we took off again to hike Muir Grove. (Check out the map, sorry no pictures) I was grumpy and didn’t want to carry the camera. It was about a 2 mile hike. On the way there we saw a black bear right outside of where we were about to hike so that made me even more annoyed. But Shawn kept pushing me so we continued even though I didn’t want to. I must be really out of shape because the hike totally kicked my butt! Plus we were idiots and didn’t bring any water at all. Once we got back we were both dirty and exhausted so we drove down to the public showers. There are only two locations in the whole park with showers open to the public so we had to wait quite a while. I broke the rules and bought a Dr. Pepper. Haha! Once we got back I took a nap while Shawn started cooking dinner. We had steak, some nasty pasta, a French baguette I got from work, and a fruit salad. While we were eating dinner the people down the road from us got there remote control airplane stuck in a tree.
It was pretty funny watching them try to get it out with a fishing pole. In the end a little boy climbed up the tree and finally got it out. We played scrabble slam until it was time for bed. Another cold night, but this time we used all three blankets so it wasn’t that bad.
Day 3 I didn’t want to get out of bed again. I’m lazy! So Shawn got up and made us breakfast. He made roasted potatoes, bacon, eggs, and we shard a banana. Today completely wore me out! We took off around 9:30 and took a shuttle to Moro Rock. It’s only a ¼ mile to the top, but it’s all up hill. Kicked my butt completely.
It was so beautiful up there. Once we got to the bottom we ate a snack as we waited for the next shuttle. Next on our adventure was the Giant Forest Museum. On the way there we drove through Crescent Meadows and by the tunnel log. It is so cool. It’s a fallen down tree that you can drive through. At the museum we took a break and then walked through the giant tree trail.
About half way through we saw a red black bear. He was so cute.
Once we finished the trail we waited forever to catch two more shuttles back to our campsite. Right now I’m just relaxing and Shawn is cooking dinner. Our campsite!
On the menu for tonight is spaghetti with chicken sausage. We’ve never had it before so it should be interesting! Just as I imagined dinner turned out great. The chicken sausage was amazing, so many herbs and spices… MMM.. Since I had already been attacked by bugs on the second day we played UNO in tent. We called it an early night and went to bed around 9pm.
Day 4 I was so eager to wake up and start packing. It was a long 4.5 hour drive back home. I couldn’t wait to take a warm long shower once we got back home.
